European Railroad Discussion > Bekonscot

For railfan visitors to the UK, a novelty site that might be of interest is the Bekonscot model village and railway in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, which is on the Chiltern line out of Marylebone station in central London.  Bekonscot was built starting in the 1920s, and still operates today much as originally designed.  I first visited Bekonscot as a kid in 1959/60 when we lived in London, and I went back for a refresher visit in 2023.  It was remarkably as I remembered!    I'm not sure of the exact scale of the models - looks slightly larger than O scale - maybe some TO members know.  (And, yes - I did wrestle with whether to post this on the European board or Model Railroad, and decided on European!)

1)  Here comes a 4-6-0 with a passenger train
2)  0-6-0 with a freight passes a mesmerized boy
3)  4-6-0 on a 4-track main
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/24 22:49 by dwatry.

---

---

---

4)  Passenger train stopping at "model" Bekonscot in Bekonscot!  How "Meta" can you get?
5)  Overview of part of the village.
6)  4-6-0 making a station stop with a passenger train.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/24 22:46 by dwatry.

---

---

---

7)   Though the train operation is fully automated, they have a fully functioning signal box.
8)  Tank engine on a local passenger train.  I think that's a train spotter on the pedestrian bridge.
9)  There's also an airport! 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/24 22:47 by dwatry.

---

---

---

10)  Overview of a large part of the village.
11)  Running along the mainline!
12)  Perhaps a Welsh mining community?

Well worth a visit!
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/24 22:41 by dwatry.

---

---

---

Thanks for posting this. I can't believe, as a UK resident railfan, I've never heard of this. It looks fabulous and I shall definitely be making tracks to get here.  Chris, uk.

Looking at picture 2, that's a serious rail bond. No voltage drop there!

I did a quick online search, found a web page (which my old browser said was bad!!), found a wiki which indicated a scale of 1" to 1 foot aka 1" to 12". Looks fantastic!

Bruce

Blimey, 'at's quate loovely then, innit! Thanks for sharing.

That is a very nice display in a most unusual scale. I would have guessed #1 Scale, an historic and rare toy train gauge that I believe Marklin produced around the time that this display was built. Great Britain has some very interesting garden railways.
Gonut
 

kurtarmbruster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Blimey, 'at's quate loovely then, innit! Thanks
> for sharing.

Are you related to Dick Van Dyke? ;-)

Virgil more like

Posted from Android